Unlocking Productivity Gains | Meredith Rowan

“I think there’s a massive opportunity for us now, more than ever, to leverage technology to get more productivity, to drive better outcomes, and I think AI is going to give us a huge advantage and opportunity with that”.

“The most exciting thing by far is Oracle is absolutely leading the pack when it comes to AI and Gen AI. We have over 100 processes out of the box already in AI and Gen AI; we are a long way ahead”.

– Meredith Rowan, Group Vice President ANZ + ASEAN, Applications, Oracle.

Today, I bring you part two of a six-part interview series recorded at the Oracle CloudWorld and SuiteWorld conferences, which were held in Las Vegas in September 2024. I encourage you to subscribe and add them all to your playlist!

In this episode, I speak with Meredith Rowan, Group Vice President ANZ + ASEAN, Applications, Oracle. 

Meredith leads the strategic direction and execution of Oracle’s cloud application solutions across the region. With over 20 years of experience in the technology sector, she has a strong track record of driving digital transformation and helping businesses leverage Oracle’s suite of enterprise solutions.

We discuss:

• A key factor in their success is making enterprise applications more user-friendly through the new Redwood user experience interface.
• Opportunities to leverage technology, particularly AI to fill the productivity gap created by economic pressures, and drive better outcomes. Meredith noted that Australia and New Zealand have slipped in global productivity rankings, with the slowest productivity growth in the last 10 years.
• Meredith shares some customer success stories, from the likes of Avis, and A2 milk.

OECD Productivity Statistics: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/data/oecd-productivity-statistics_pdtvy-data-en 

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Scroll down for a full transcript

This transcript has been generated and transcribed by AI.

Could you share with our listeners what does your role involve?

Meredith:
Sure. Heather, thank you so much. It’s an absolute delight to have this opportunity to talk to yourself and your listeners. So I’m just thrilled and delighted to be with you. What does my role involve? Well, I would like to think that my role involves really working with supporting and enabling our customers and our prospects to be very, very successful when they use Oracle Applications. So I spend a lot of time throughout Australia and throughout the region, and I actually, I often say to people, I’m so fortunate. I think I have the best job in the world. I get to go into companies, and I get to meet with people, and I get to meet with many finance executives. I get to meet with CIOs CFOs, COOs, and we talk about where the business is today, but really critically, where they want the business to go tomorrow. And I’m really curious person. So being able to look inside and see how we can work with and support these organisations to their next, yeah, is just fascinating. So I think that’s that’s a large part of my role.

Heather:
What a privilege to be able to go into those companies and what amazing insight you must have for them to be able to sort of have a sense of the trends, of what is happening in the industry, and sort of be able to share and work with them on that.

How has NetSuite presence in ANZ and ASEAN markets evolved during your time at Oracle?

Meredith:
How have they evolved? So interestingly, I came from NetSuite. So I was in NetSuite now, goodness, you take me back, what were the years? Yeah, 10 years ago, and I was there for about five years in the NetSuite business, and I ran the NetSuite business until I moved into the Oracle mainstream business.

Heather:
So maybe I’ve worded that incorrectly.

Meredith:
No, it’s fine. It’s all good. No. So NetSuite is a great product. They’re more SMB, more finance focused. I’ve seen with the Oracle acquisition, they’ve really evolved to grow and really expand in their marketplace. They’re doing fantastic things in their marketplace. I came into the Oracle role in six years ago now. I’ve been in the Oracle side of the business, and I came over from NetSuite because we were really looking to build a renewals business and really build out looking after our customer base, to make sure that they kept renewing and kept reinvesting in the Oracle SaaS applications. So I built that out, and I’ve been with the application side of the business for six years, and I’ve just seen it grow exponentially across the region, which is really thrilling. You know, we’ve had some wonderful success.

Heather:
Absolutely. And I was, there was a lot of mention of the new Redwood, yes, design and experience yesterday, and I went and had a look at that and what I hadn’t tweaked, but had a video about Oracle and how you actually go to the Oracle for your answers, with all your questions, you go to the Oracle. I hadn’t like, I hadn’t tweaked that. That was kind of the intellect.

Meredith:
The pun in the pun.

Heather:
Yeah.

Meredith:
Oracle, yeah. But it’s too Redwood, to your point.

Heather:
Yeah.

Meredith:
You know, it is an absolute thrill being able to take the application out to our customers and our prospects and show them how much we’ve changed that interface and how much more user friendly it is. It’s making a huge difference for us. You know, I think that it’s been a significant improvement. I would go as far as to say a game changer. You know, we are, you know, in the last 12 months, for many of the largest opportunities that we’ve been in the market and competing on, particularly in HCM, we’ve not lost one. People are attributing that to the new Redwood interface and the kind of user experience that it gives you. I think you know for so long, many of us, I might be showing my age, many of us have come through the ranks, and we were used to enterprise software applications that were maybe not the simplest user interface. And I think that focus on making more of the work experience like the commercial experience, pardon me, like a consumer experience, I think that’s really helped us to adopt and embrace enterprise applications. And Redwood’s absolutely proof in the pudding of that. It’s, you know, we’ve focused on making it very user-friendly, making it very rich in terms of the ability to see and get information. Just made it so much more accessible and intuitive than it’s been historically. So, yeah, we’re very excited about Redwood and what’s bringing.

Heather:
The weaving of the Redwood forest into the wording or the branding there, and the Redwood forest always has a very calming sense about it. So that’s really smart, because, you know, people when they are going to move to an ERP, overwhelming.

Meredith:
Absolutely.

Heather:
Yeah.

Meredith:
Absolutely. Moving people into software, enterprise applications and change management, I say to many of the CFOs I work with, this is the hardest part. This is the most difficult part is the change management aspect, and we all always underestimate how much change management actually entails and involves. And I think, you know, there’s a lot of discussion I have with our customers, with our partners as well, around how do we really support and work with our customers to ensure that, you know, we help them take all their people on the journey. It’s one thing for the finance executives to be really comfortable with moving to this new system, but there are a lot of people you need to take with you. And with Fusion Applications, it’s not just finance applications as HR applications and CX applications. So the footprint of users across the organisation is incredibly broad. And to your point, you really do need to make sure that the customer, and all of the people in the organisation are comfortable to come on that journey.

Heather:
Yeah, absolutely.

Meredith:
It’s a huge change.

Heather:
It absolutely is.

Do you see that the businesses in the regions that you cover face any unique challenges?

Meredith:
Well, I think at the moment, we’re all facing some very big challenges. I don’t know the unique challenges per se. I think if we look at, well, let’s start with Australia and New Zealand. You know, the finance executives I’m talking to. The challenge we have now is that there’s not much left to cut. We’ve cut as much cost as we possibly can, and when we look at asking people to do more and trying to push productivity harder, you know, that’s not really an option either. You know, we’ve got a situation where, because we’ve already faced significant challenges in the economy, I think people have cut where they could. I think many people and many organisations are doing more than they did before with less. So we’ve already got a big challenge there. So I think the challenge, or the unique challenge that we face, is actually the unique opportunity to take advantage of technology to fill what I would call maybe the productivity gap, or the possibility gap that we all face because of the amount of economic pressure we’re under at the moment. I mean, it’s difficult times. But now, more than ever, is the opportunity to really leverage technology to be able to make up for that. And I think finance are just so uniquely positioned. And I’m probably cheekily talking to your listeners, because I know, you know, I know they’re finance executives by and large. But I think, you know, gosh, what a wonderful position to be in. You’re in a trusted position. You know your organisation, you know the data sources for your organisation, you know the data yourself, and you’re in this wonderful position to be able to look to leverage, perhaps AI and technology, to really drive some more efficient outcomes than you had before. And so I think, you know, I think there’s a big opportunity in Australia and New Zealand, particularly around productivity. Australia and New Zealand, I think we’ve just slipped to 31st or 34th in productivity status in the world. Our productivity growth has been the slowest in the last 10 years of the last 60. And that really means, I guess, decline in the standard of living for all of us. So I think there’s a massive opportunity for us now, more than ever, to leverage technology to get more productivity, to drive better outcomes, and I think AI is going to give us a huge advantage and opportunity with that. So I think, yeah, the unique challenge that we face is, I think, just the difficulty of the environment we’re in, but I think there’s a massively unique opportunity for finance executives to really embrace and lean into AI and enterprise applications to move their organisations forward.

Heather:
And to circle back to what you said earlier, be curious.

Meredith:
Yeah, always, always. I mean, it’s quite incredible. Like, I said, I think I’ve got the best job in the world. Like, I think I’m very, very fortunate. But you know, like, it’s great, like A2 milk, you know, they’re a company out of Sydney. They’re a fantastic, you know, local Aussie company. And you know, I was talking with James Madigan. They’ve managed them simple, simple things, right? They’ve managed to take their close from nine days down to four days, just by rolling our Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, nine days to four days. Now, when you put that back in real terms in A2 milk, what does that mean James and his team can do differently and look at and have more time to do? It’s fantastic.

Heather:
Yeah, it’s phenomenal.
Meredith:
Yeah.

Heather:
Five days back, and they can have it off. They can take it off.

Meredith:
I think that’s very generous. I think that’s a great idea. But I think, you know that they’re really brave, like A2 milk are really brave, like they really lean in to AI and innovative. And so, you know, I was just thinking when I was telling you about their close, not only that, they embraced AI to run all their forecasting. So they kept going with the standard forecasting that they’d used before, right? But then they said, Okay, we’re gonna we’re gonna use AI and we’re gonna let AI do our forecasting. So they ran it for six quarters consecutively. Both, guess which was more accurate?

Heather:
The second one?

Meredith:
AI, yeah.

Heather:
Oh, okay.

Meredith:
Every time, six quarters in a row.

Heather:
Wow.

Meredith:
And AI came out with a more accurate forecast each and every time. So, yeah, that’s just A2 milk. And that’s a great example of, I guess, an opportunity to lean in and find new ways to do things.

Heather:
Yeah, goodness. Wonder how the humans feel about that.

Meredith:
I think, well, funnily enough, so, you know, I think that’s a really, really important statement that you just made because it’s very interesting. I was at a session with Deloitte two weeks ago, and Stuart Scotis, who leads AI for Deloitte for Australia and New Zealand, was saying, you know, many people are fearful that AI is going to replace them. And he had a really good point. He said, AI will not replace you, but someone who uses AI will replace you. And I thought that was really interesting, because it is so true. What it’s about is getting rid of those inefficiencies and being able to free up time for finance to actually do work on the business, not in the business. Yeah, there’s another great example of that, with Avis. I love this example with Avis because it’s just such a simple process flow. But to that point, Avis Cars, so we all know Avis Cars Rental, right? Yeah. So they they use Fusion Applications, Fusion ERP and so they had a simple thing example for you, non-PO invoices, right? So, vain of everyone’s existence, non-PO invoices, we allocate. Where do they belong? And so basically, they used the AI that’s out of the box in Oracle Fusion Applications. Just used it straight out of the box, and 3.3 million predictions, a 98% accuracy rate on all of those non-PO invoices, right? So think about that Avis cars, that’s a lot. Yeah, out of those 3.3 million predictions, 98% success rate. That’s given their team back 122 hours per month, 122 hours per month. And it lets you get out of working in the business and start working on the business and looking for those opportunities and being able to drive forward and being able to add value back to the business and leverage all the great you know, this is the time for finance. I talk about this a lot, don’t I? I think if there was ever a time to be a finance executive, it’s now.

Heather:
Yeah.

Meredith:
We see so many CEOs being ex CFOs. I just think, you know, it’s really the culmination of many, many things that make finance just in the perfect place. You know, you’ve got the trend of, you know, the CEO coming from the CFO office. You’ve got, like I said, finance executives are the absolutely best placed people to understand and appreciate the data of the organisation, but then to apply that back into business outcomes and partner with the business divisions to give greater wins and efficiencies. So really, yeah, for your listeners, it’s a very exciting time.

Heather:
It absolutely is. And the finance people, they understand all the data and how it’s all been siloed in separate areas.

Meredith:
Yeah.

Historically, large businesses in the ANZ region are much smaller than their US counterparts. Are you seeing that trend changing?

Meredith:
Let me…historically, Australia businesses being much smaller than the US?

Heather:
Like if we go, oh, that’s a large business in Australia. And then we come over here, and we looked at a large business in the US, a large business here is so much bigger.

Meredith:
Yes, definitely.

Are we seeing businesses in Australia grow in size? Are you seeing that?

Meredith:
Absolutely, and there’s nothing I enjoy more than working with our Australian businesses and really supporting them to grow. I think Australian businesses are really looking to adopt best practice, and very open to adopting best practice, and I’m really proud of that when I meet with a lot of the Australian companies. I talked about A2 milk, that’s a great Aussie company. They, you know, are very open to, I think, taking the best of breed and best of practice from around the world. So long as you can do that, it’s not really so important about your size. I think it’s more important about being very efficient and capable and doing a good job for your for your customers, for your own customers. I think that that’s where I see Australian companies are very, very focused. It’s not the CFOs that I’m speaking to, the finance executives that I’m speaking to. Absolutely growths are given, but it has to be manageable and has to be sustainable. And I think that, yeah, historically, obviously, you know, in Australia, we’re not as big as the rest of the global players. But I’d like to think that we learn the best from them and do a fantastic job ourselves and do things a little differently.

Heather:
Yeah. I do think that Australia looks out into the world, doesn’t it?

Meredith:
Yeah. So I was working with a very large insurance company in Victoria recently. I think 40% of Victorians are a member of this organisation, and they were just so aware during the process of deciding to come with us, what could they learn globally? And I’m seeing that certainly a very increasing trend the organisations that we’re talking to and working with finance modernisation, finance transformation, finance optimisation, are very, very keen to learn and listen and get the very best practice they can. And actually, yesterday, I was talking to a CFO who’s here with us at CloudWorld, and she’s just elected to come on to Fusion Financials and also fusion Supply Chain Management for her organisation, which is in healthcare industry, very large organisation. And she made a really good point. And she said, You know, I’m sitting there and I’m looking at our infrastructure. I’m looking at our software, and I’m saying to myself, I cannot keep up with the innovation cycle. I can’t do it, and I don’t want to be in this position all the time. I want to transform. And then I just want to adopt very best practice. And I want someone else, like you Oracle, to give us the innovation. And she made a really good point. You know, we spend $9 billion on research and development with 14,000 customers globally on Fusion Applications. And she said to me, you know you you tell me, you lead the way, you give me the quarterly updates, you give me the innovation. Because I cannot do that. I can’t have that big team, but I can’t afford to invest in software that doesn’t evolve and grow continuously. And I thought she made it. She made her she made that point really well yesterday. I think that was that was great to hear, you know, really great to hear that we’re helping them stay ahead of the curve in their industry and be able to do new and better things, because you help a healthcare provider that’s great outcomes for everybody.

Heather:
Absolutely. And I’ve heard this. The way that you’re phrasing things several times today, is that while you’re selling to them, you’re really a partner in their business.

Meredith:
Absolutely. Honestly, that is the first thing that I talk to all of our prospects and all of our customers about. I sit down with our customers, and the first thing I want to know is, you know, what value are you getting from the investment you’ve made. And for those that are considering and coming with us, what value do you want to get from this investment? What does this look like? Because we actually are going to be joined together at the hip for a really long time. We’re not selling you on premise software, where you buy a product and you go away and build it and maintain it. Absolutely not. We’re providing you a service, and we need to be here today, tomorrow and into infinity, providing value for you and service for you and innovation for you, day in, day out. And that’s something that Oracle takes incredibly seriously. We put quarterly updates into the application. So as per that CFO I was talking about just now from the healthcare industry, she can leverage that, and she can get the value from that for her staff and then flow through to their patients.

For those listening from the ANZ and ASEAN region, who are sitting on the core solution, what are some of the solutions within the suite that they should potentially consider?

Meredith:
So if someone’s sitting just with, say, just just with core ERP, okay, just with, we’re still very grateful for that, and I hope you’re getting wonderful value. One I would absolutely encourage you to do is, you know, we talked about Redwood at the start. So if you’re sitting on an older version, or you’re not aware of the kind of innovation and changes that have occurred over the last 12-18, months, definitely, have a look at that. It’s really important that you can have an appreciation for what Redwood can bring to the user experience. I think the most exciting thing by far is Oracle is absolutely leading the pack when it comes to AI and Gen AI. We have over 100 processes out of the box already in AI and Gen AI, we are a long way ahead. So please make sure you have a look at and understand what we can do and help you with there. Of course, our HCM application.

Coul you explain to our listeners what’s HCM?

Meredith:
Very good point. Thank you so much. Human Capital Management. So our HR system. That can do everything from recruit or hire to retire, if you want the more typical vernacular. To give you an example right of where we’re at with our HCM or human capital management solution. You know, I don’t love writing job descriptions, I’ve got to be honest. And so the special thing about Oracle and our AI is we only use our data. So if you are using the HCM application, it will only be your data, nobody else’s. So the moment, now that I start to write a job description, I get all the prompts. It automatically detects, well, what is that job? What does that look like? What’s that role? What’s the functions of that role? And starts to give me suggestions on how I can populate that job description. Literally takes me five minutes on something that I used to noodle for 45-50 minutes, and then sometimes longer, and typically at one in the morning, right? So probably not doing my best work. So I leverage AI within our HCM application to help me with that job description. But it doesn’t stop there. The next thing, what it does for me is it takes all of the applicants, and it takes and matches all of the CVs that come in for the role, and it gives me 150 it gives me the top 10 matches, and it gives me 150 word summary of each. Can I tell you how much time that saves? So I would encourage you, if you’re at home, please look at the HCM or the HR applications and understand what they can do. UniSuper, for example, Julie at UniSuper, the CHRO there, she’s fantastic. Julie Watkins, you know. She talks about the fact that, since they started using and they use ERP and HCM, so they use the stack. Since she started using HR, they’ve been able to do, you know, they’re getting rates of employee engagement up in the 90s. We know that employee engagement in Australia is about 32% average. So really, really great outcomes there. So look at the HR applications. Supply chain management. Have a look at supply chain management and see the kind of efficiencies that we can drive and deliver for you there. There’s so much capability and so much richness that is open to our customers. They can really improve in terms of demand planning, really improve customer outcomes. I think ResMed Corp are a great example of this. They’ve used supply chain planning to great effect to differentiate and get better outcomes for their business. So yeah, have a look at that. And then EPM. You know, there is nothing we can’t accomplish within our APM stack, and we have customers using it for ESG, so environmental sustainability and governance requirements and reporting. So we’re seeing a huge amount of value there. So I think your users would be really interested in that. I think it’s really important. Our APM reporting gives huge capability in ESG, and we’re seeing a huge uptake for that recons. You know, there’s a host of possibilities across the stack. But, yeah, just just reach out myself to anyone at Oracle. We very happily talk to you and give you more information.

Heather:

I think you’ve given our listeners a lot of things to be curious about and to move further.

Meredith:

I hope so.

What’s been one highlight for you so far here in Las Vegas at SuiteWorld?

Meredith:
We’re a couple of days in now. I’m actually really excited. I think in about 30 minutes, we get to see Safra Catz on stage. She’s our CEO, and, you know, a lot of people have a lot of respect for Safra. I think that she has taken Oracle to just the next level. The things that we’re achieving and accomplishing around the globe, and some of the announcements that are coming, that which are, I believe, coming, I haven’t heard them yet. I wish I had sidetracked 30 minutes time. But I think, no. I think for me, being, yeah, being a female executive in Australia, I think seeing someone like Safra Catz, who’s been with Oracle for a very long time, and knows our business incredibly well and has driven us to new heights in terms of what we’re able to achieve and accomplish. I think I’m very much looking forward to that. But the absolute highlight for me so far is just I got to spend a bit more time with some of our customers. And I think yesterday, hearing, you know that example I gave you, hearing that CFO, when she said, you know that she is banking on us, and she was very clear about that, you know. The trust that they’ve put in us, to work with us is huge. And I think that, for me is the highlight. I think knowing that you’re working with executives and organisations where, when we get this right, we can deliver huge value that not only saves money, improves efficiencies, but critically, can change lives. That’s my highlight every time.

Heather:
Absolutely. Thank you, Meredith, so much for joining us on the accounting apps podcast.

How can our listeners get in contact with you?

Meredith:
Oh, Heather. No, it’s been my pleasure. Thank you. It’s such, such fun. I could stay here all day. How can they get in touch with you? Very welcome to reach out. I’m very happy to share my email.

Heather:
Maybe they should contact you on LinkedIn.

Meredith:
No issue at all, whatever anybody needs. Always keen to hear from people that want to know more about Oracle. I’m very happy to encourage them to do so. Fabulous.

Heather:
Thank you so much, Meredith.

Meredith:
Thank you, Heather. My pleasure. Thank you.